Lists Are Rank

On the last day of last year, which you'll recall was on Saturday, I mentioned something about taking stock. I believe that it's valuable to do so in order to see clearer the way ahead for oneself. In general though, I think we are too given to making lists and ranking things. That's not to say that there is no value in these things. After all, one must make a list prior to shopping for groceries, and when there is some question about which is the best bread, what better way to resolve is there than ranking them based on their merits?

After that I don't know what the point is. Take movies, if you will. I feel myself smothered by the multitude of lists and rankings surrounding them. I don't know why people go to the trouble. They already get ranked by box office gross automatically, and that's at least as good a measure of excellence as those provided by alleged experts who really are masters only of reporting the plot points of a movie in their entirety.

Many people find more meaning in live through the regimented organization of all the information they have at their disposal, but I find otherwise. The people who benefit most from making lists are unethical website operators who employ them as a means of inflating their hit counts. As you would see if you personally saw the data that comes in on this humble blog, I don't do that. I probably ought to, but pride interferes with more practical considerations all the time.

What is good about lists? I guess that they do have a way of focusing attention on what matters most, though I have disdained them on that basis. I think though that they leave you overconfident that you have everything in front of you, and consequently attention is drawn away from worthy things that somehow did not make the cut. After all, humans make the lists, much though we might like to believe otherwise. Why have the false security?